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Protein & Peptide Letters

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 0929-8665
ISSN (Online): 1875-5305

Concerted Action of Metals and Macromolecular Crowding on the Fibrillation of α-Synuclein

Author(s): Larissa A. Munishkina, Anthony L. Fink and Vladimir N. Uversky

Volume 15, Issue 10, 2008

Page: [1079 - 1085] Pages: 7

DOI: 10.2174/092986608786071102

Price: $65

Abstract

Certain metals lead to increased risk of Parkinsons disease (PD) and the aggregation of α-synuclein is implicated in the PD pathology. Although α-synuclein fibrillation has been extensively studied in dilute solutions in vitro, the intracellular environment is highly crowded. We are showing here that certain metals cause a significant acceleration of α-synuclein fibrillation in the presence of high concentrations of various macromolecules mostly through decreasing the fibrillation lagtime. The faster fibrillation in crowded environments in the presence of heavy metals suggests a simple molecular basis for the observed elevated risk of PD due to exposure to metals.

Keywords: Parkinson's disease, α-synuclein, crowding, fibrillation, aggregation, metals


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